A Heart Beats in the Desert
by Sariniste
Summary: "Come with me now, my onna. I see it now; the heart... I'll come to you by moonlight, once the battle has been won." Ulquiorra's rescue of Orihime goes terribly wrong. UlquiHime romance based on 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. AU.


**A Heart Beats in the Desert **

(an UlquiHime version of _The Highwayman_ by Alfred Noyes)

**A/N:** My attempt at a romantic narrative poem for Ulquiorra x Orihime, based on _The Highwayman_ by Alfred Noyes. Dedicated to my friends in the UlquiHime FC on Bleach Asylum. :) Thanks so much to **jylener22**, **Flare-Flare**, and **TheCloudWeaver-Insanity** for beta-ing!

This is a little OOC and AU, a mix of Hueco Mundo and the Scottish countryside where Noyes set his romantic poem. I've made Ulquiorra a knight and Orihime a princess imprisoned in a castle (I'm deliberately a little vague about the political details).

If you haven't read the Noyes poem you can easily find it on the internet. I've always really loved it, and I've been thinking about doing a Bleach version for a long time. I think Ulquiorra makes a good outlaw...

XxXxXxX

**PART ONE**

The moon was a glittering crescent among the barren trees,  
The sands stretched out serenely like silent silver seas,  
The forest was a mist of crystal circling the castle wall,  
And the pale knight came riding –  
– Riding – riding –  
The pale knight came riding, up to the fortress hall.

He'd a bone-white mask on his forehead, a hollow hole 'neath his chin,  
A coat of the whitest linen, and paler still was his skin.  
His eyes were the green of emeralds, with teardrops below each eye,  
And he rode with grace and ease,  
– Through the spiny, lifeless trees,  
He rode with impassive ease under the glittering sky.

Over the sands he spurred, and slipped past the castle guard.  
He tapped with dark nails on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.  
He murmured a call to the window, and who should be waiting there  
But Orihime, the weaver princess,  
– Orihime, the captive princess,  
Twirling her azure hairpins upon her auburn hair.

But dark in the shadowed courtyard a darker shadow clambered  
Where Loly the serving girl listened. Her eyes burned red with anger.  
Her fists were clenched in fury, her pigtails shook with rage  
For she hated the pure-hearted princess,  
– Despised the captive princess.  
Silent and sly as a serpent, she heard the pale knight say –

"Come with me now, my onna. I see it now; the heart.  
But wait just one more night; then we'll never need to part.  
There's one more warrior to vanquish, then my duty shall be done.  
So look for me by moonlight,  
– Watch for me by moonlight,  
I'll come to you by moonlight, once the battle has been won."

He stood up tall in the stirrups. He lifted one pure white hand.  
And she loosened her auburn hair. Over his face it fanned.  
Her hair like shining gold, the sunlight he'd never seen  
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,  
– O, sweet warm waves in the moonlight –  
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and left in a sunlit dream.

**PART TWO**

There never was a dawning. There never was a noon.  
In Hueco Mundo of eternal night and never-changing moon,  
The troop of cold Espada came, outfitted now for war,  
The deadly masked Espada came marching –  
– Marching – marching –  
The grim tattooed Espada marching, marching to her door.

They said no word to the princess. One smashed her face instead.  
But they gagged the girl and bound her, to the foot of her narrow bed.  
Two of them stood at the casement, with Ceros blazing there.  
There was death at every window;  
– And hell at one dark window;  
Orihime's eyes were turned to the desert, and the man she could not spare.

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest.  
They had bound her fairies with magic, a Cero beneath her breast.  
"Now, keep good watch!" Nnoitra kissed her. Her tears began to fall.  
"_So look for me by moonlight,  
__– Watch for me by moonlight,  
__I'll come to you by moonlight,"_ once more she heard him call.

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good.  
She strained to touch her hairpins till her fingers were wet with blood.  
But the hairpins now were broken; her fairies dead and still.  
And her heart cried out in the darkness,  
– Alone and cold in the darkness,  
She had no more powers to warn him; in her heart she felt a chill.

All at once in the dark she saw it; the Cero burning bright.  
"Move or release to warn him and it'll be your final sight."  
Her path at last was clear. The sun had set in their hands.  
The sun had set in the desert,  
– But she could shield the moon in the desert,  
Shield the man she loved in the moonlight, and send him away over the sands.

And then it came in the distance, from over the sandy hill,  
She felt his heart like a beacon, more light than the moon could spill.  
And dark in the room beside her, the men beside her stirred.  
The pale knight came riding –  
– Riding – riding –  
The Espada eyed their weapons. One said, "Wait for the final word."

Nearer he came and nearer, his face in the bright moonlight.  
She drank in his face in the moonlight, her final halcyon sight.  
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,  
Then she brought her lips to the Cero,  
– Red lips like fire to the Cero,  
She set loose, fired the spell and warned him – with her death.

The blast, it flashed like a nova; a brilliant shattering flare.  
Brighter than a thousand suns, igniting the desert air.  
The man stopped dead in the desert, he felt the warning there.  
He felt her heart in the brilliance,  
– Her love for him in the brilliance,  
The flight of her life in the distance, that foiled his enemies' snare.

As the dazzling light turned to ashes, and darkness fell over the land,  
He bowed his head for a moment; then rage burned in him like a brand.  
On he spurred his horse in the desert. His way to the castle was clear.  
He charged his foes in the moonlight,  
– Took on his death in the moonlight,  
For the sun had set in the moonlight; he now had nothing to fear.

On, he spurred on in anguish; the emotion burned in his chest.  
The heart he'd once spurned was now scalding, scorching its way through his breast.  
His wings filled the sky with his power; the splendor blazed forth as he screamed.  
But they blasted him with a Cero,  
– Blasted him to bits with a Cero,  
Burned him to ash in the moonlight, the ash blown away like a dream.

_And now they say, in the desert, when the moon spins through the trees,_  
_When ashes sigh like faded ghosts over empty sandy seas,_  
_Sometimes one hears a heartbeat, where two hands reach out to hold._  
_Then the rain pours down in the desert,_  
_– Black rain pours down in the desert,_  
_Where a heart still beats in the desert, for a love that will never grow old._

XxXxXxX

**A/N:** Feedback is always welcome!

Also, I've been thinking about making this into a series of UlquiHime verses based on other romantic poetry; what do you think?


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